Kingdom Hearts: Finding Memories
by Forelle
Summary: Roxas is in Twilight Town, but he has no memory of Organization XIII, Axel, or anything from the past two years. What will happen when Axel comes to find him?
1. Save one :: Starting up ::

Disclaimer- if I owned it I wouldn't be writing a fanfic about it.

So, this is what I'm really working on and, I realize this, there may be a few errors, but that's because I wrote this all on WordPad, not Word. So, if I have misspellings or any such thing use your mind and correct them.

Read and Review please. Thanks.

"_So you got an idea yet?"_

"_Nope, my brains stuck on a thought."_

"_What?"_

"_You . . ."_

"ROXAS!"

What?

As he stumbled to open his eyes, the dream already began to slip away. By the time he was aware of where he was and who was yelling at him to get up, the image of the dream slipped away to a bright red blur next to a pale yellow blur and then into nothing.

"Did you hear me?" Hayner yelled.

"Ngh, it's too early." He grumbled, turning over in his bed.

"Come on Roxas! We gotta go get some food; Olette said we're getting low."Hayner whined.

"You know, the sun looks very calm as it comes up in the morning. You know not running around and rudely waking people up with some loud obnoxious noise. Nothing like somebody I know, right fish globe?" Roxas said mockingly as he looked out his window.

"Roxas!" Hayner whined again. "We gotta get something to eat, and you handle all the money. . . ." He just let his sentence drop there.

Roxas flipped back over on his bed to look at Hayner. The head strong boy was standing in the opening that led to the common room which the four friends; Hayner, Olette, Pence, and himself; shared. Hayner was already dressed and ready to head out. Apparently so were the others because there were noises and voices from outside of his bedroom besides the usual creaks of their house.

"What time is it?" He finally sighed, giving up a struggle that would just end in Hayner winning anyway.

"Six o'clock!" Hayner said happily.

"Six in the MORNING?" Roxas yelled as he sat straight up on his bed. He flung his covers from him as he rushed over to where Hayner stood and shoved the stunned boy with both of his hands, sending him out into the common room a little unstable.

"What the heck's the matter with you?" Hayner yelled back as he picked himself up off the floor.

"It's six o'clock in the morning and you expect me to get up?" Roxas shouted. "I've only been asleep for almost four hours! I expected a little more time today to . . . ." He stopped up short, realizing what he had just said.

"You went to bed only four hours ago?" Olette asked quizzically.

"Aw great, nice move Rox," he muttered to himself.

"Naw, really, tell us where you were. Did something happen?" Pence asked.

"Did you run into Seifer and his crew?" Hayner questioned quickly. "You do look a little sore today."

"No, I-I didn't see Seifer or anyone last night. And I feel fine. It's nothing, really." He studdered.

They had him backed into a corner and there was only one way out of it, without having to tell the others what had gone on the night before. So he agreed.

"Give me about ten minutes and I'll be ready." Roxas finally sighed. This seemed to please Hayner, because he backed up from him with a grin painted on his face.

"Alright, we'll meet you outside. Come on guys."

With that they all moved to go downstairs, Olette was the last one to go. She looked back at the boy whom she had just met a couple of months back. She felt like they had known each other forever, but Roxas just seemed to be so distant from the others, like he didn't have all himself together at the moment. Like he forgot something important about himself.

She finally turned around, though, to head after Hayner and Pence, all the while shaking the troubling thoughts of Roxas away. But they still worried her, sitting in the corner, waiting for her to jump to conclusions.

"Oh well, I'm probably just worrying for no reason at all." She told herself.

After they had closed the door, Roxas headed back to his room. Slumping down onto his bed, he put his head in his hands and thought about the night before.

Why had he gone outside into the city last night? He didn't really know, to clear his head maybe? Yeah, maybe that was it, but there had to be something else. It felt like there must

have been something else, because there was some nagging thought, like a forgotten dream, that had sort of called out to him. A bit like sleep-walking, only when you're awake.

"Oh well, I was walking is all, and that's that." He finally told himself. Getting up he moved over to his dresser and began dressing for the day ahead. Hoping that the others wouldn't keep pestering him about what he had been doing last night.

Hayner, do you think something _did_ happen last night with Roxas?" Pence asked, speaking aloud Olette's own worries that she was to afraid to ask.

Hayner kept quiet about his thoughts for a moment and then suddenly turned around to face Pence's questioning expression and Olette's concerned one.

"Roxas?" Hayner asked. Before anyone could say something to it, he talked on. "Naw, he's an honest guy. He wouldn't say something didn't happen if something did. And that's that. Don't keep bugging him about it, all right?" It wasn't a question so much as an order, and the others knew it. He was kind of like the leader after all.

But it still worries me, Olette thought; it just doesn't seem like something Roxas would do.

They had reached the street by now and were about half-way to the early market when Roxas came running down the streets towards them.

"Hey, guys! You said that you'd wait for me at the bottom!" He yelled as he got closer.

"Woops, sorry 'bout that Rox. But we weren't that far!" Hayner yelled back.

"Yeah, well you still could have waited," he grumbled when he had caught up to them.

Olette patted him on the shoulder and said, "Well at least you caught up to us, didn't you?" She smiled her infectious grin as Roxas' own grin spread and soft eyes came upon his face, losing the hard glint that they had from the lack of sleep.

"Yeah, I did didn't I," he muttered under his breath, trying to hide the smile that was still growing on his face.

"Come on guys, enough talkin'. I'm starved, so let's go grab some food." Pence barked.

"Yeah, yeah, let's go," Roxas agreed.

"Sea-salt ice cream . . . . for breakfast Rox? I mean it's just so . . . . salty. And besides, don't you eat enough of it without having it for breakfast, too?" Hayner said with a small laugh. Roxas had it almost twenty-four seven. He was addicted to the stuff. Okay, maybe not that much, but still, he had it a lot.

"Hmm?" Roxas asked. He had been letting his mind wander and think about things, but the mention of his name and 'sea-salt ice cream' had pulled him out of his mind wander.

"Ah, nothin', forget it Rox," Hayner sighed. The kid had been spacing out more and more everyday now. It had the rest of them worried, but Hayner was mainly upset that he might hit a tree or something next time.

Roxas turned back to eating his ice cream. He didn't know why he liked it so much. The others thought it was way too salty to have it as many times as Roxas had it. But to him, it sort of had a sweet flavor, too.

"Well looky here, the neighborhood rats have crawled out of their hole. What could they possibly be doing here out so early?" said a boisterous voice from behind the little group.

They knew who it was; they could have kept walking and ignored him if they wanted. No trouble, no fights. And Roxas, Pence, and Olette were all for that idea, but Hayner was too much of a hothead and could meet, and surpass, anyone if ego was counted.

"Look whose talkin' hat head." Hayner shout back as he turned around to face Seifer and his gang. The others all turned around very reluctantly as well.

Roxas winced at Hayner's comeback. Sure the guy was alright in a fight if it came down to it, but Hayner needed a little bit of work in picking the fights, and starting them.

"Hey, look Fuu, the mouse has teeth. What a surprise!" Seifer called behind him, his remark got laughs from his group.

He really knows how to push Hayner's buttons, thought Roxas as he looked over to where the other boy stood. His face was a deep crimson and a hard glint of hatred had come over the boy's eyes.

"Quit it Seifer, we aren't looking for trouble." Roxas told the older boy sternly as he stepped forward. It caught the attention of Seifer and his lackeys enough to hear the blondie out. Roxas risked a quick glance over to Hayner to see his reaction. Roxas could already hear the other boy yelling at him when they were finished here.

"Oh really, well what would you say to fighting me? One-on-one." Seifer offered mockingly.

"I told you, we aren't looking for trouble. We're only getting food. Nothing else." Roxas said sternly, fighting the urge to knock the older boy's teeth out, or at least try to anyway.

"What are you? Chicken?" All look of mock and friendliness drained from Seifer's face, replaced quickly by annoyance.

"I told you . . ." But Roxas couldn't finish his sentence, Hayner and his big mouth interrupted.

"Six o'clock, center square, under the clock tower, sticks for weapons."

"Alright, deal, see you at your death bed, kiddy." Amusement had seeped back into the boy's voice as he walked away with his gang following right behind him, leaving no further room for argument.

Roxas stood there, stunned by how fast things had changed from fruitless peacemaker, to dead man walking in less than a minute.

That was actually kind of funny to watch," whispered a tall, skinny red head that had been standing in the shadows watching the scene unfold before him.

"Hayner!" Roxas yelled for what felt like the hundredth time in less than an hour.

"Whaat? What do you have to say now?" Hayner shot back at the blonde.

How the hell could you have made a deal that I would fight Seifer? Why're you making me do it? Many other statements coursed through his mind, but he voiced only one, "Why?"

He was exasperated from yelling, he just didn't have enough in him to yell at the other boy, at the moment. If he lived through the ordeal tonight, Hayner would be indebt to him for the rest of his life.

"Because you're the best fighter out of all of us." Hayner said matter-o'-factly.

And because of your ego, thought Olette.

She sided with Roxas on this one. Hayner hadn't even asked him if he wanted to fight, he had just shouted out whatever came into his brainless head at the moment.

They had gotten home with the food they needed without any other interferences. The only thing that felt off, to Olette anyway, was that there was someone following them. It felt that way anyway. Like there was someone just around the corner watching them. Of course, it could

just be paranoia about the fight that she was feeling. Which is exactly what she put it down to; A slight fear that something was going to happen to Roxas or one of the others, nothing much.

"Are you going to talk to him?" A voice asked him from inside. One of a memory that felt so long ago.

"Of course, he means so much to me, why wouldn't I want to talk to him?" He had answered.

"You're going to try and wake his memories, aren't you?" She had asked.

"Yes, that's what I was planning. Why?"

"Give him my thanks and that I hope he is alright." She had told him. He had grinned at her concern over him.

"Sure thing, I hope you'll stay alright, too, got it squirt?"

"Alright, see you around sometime. Bye for now."

And that was where they left, her off back to her room, pad in one hand and her markers, pencils, and crayons waiting for her, and himself on to a mission that he had to do himself.

"Roxas," he whispered as he looked at where the boy was staying. He would talk to him, and make him remember. Even if it killed himself.

It was one hour till the deadline and Roxas was dreading every minute that brought him closer to that impending doom he felt looming over him.

He was sitting at the edge of the clock tower. He had been sitting there for most of the time after his argument with Hayner.

It was still a bit light out. In a few minutes, the sun would be between worlds, split in half. And the sky . . . the sky would be a complete canvas of hundreds of colors. Reds, oranges, yellows, blues, and all the colors in between. Then, only a few minutes later, it would be night. Dark, but speckled with little points of light.

"Why can't I remember?" Roxas murmured to himself. That's the only reason he came up to the clock tower. To remember. It called to him somehow. It might not be that place exactly, maybe not the clock tower, it might just be where it was placed. Like there had been something

like this somewhere else that had been a place of importance. But he never remembered anything, just felt something.

He slowly let his eyes drift shut, closing out all his worries, all the noise and hum of the night market opening while the twilight market closed. It always seemed peaceful up here. No one else except himself and the occasional, random bird that would fly over head.

It felt like he had closed his eyes for only a moment, but when he reopened his eyes, it had gotten darker. Millions of little stars were beginning to poke through the midnight blue sky above him. Below him a mass of lights were also glowing. But these lights were to bright to be a reflection, they were the lights of the night market. It was time for the fight with Seifer.

"Hah! He's not gonna show," Shouted Seifer.

It had been almost half an hour since the set time, and still Roxas hadn't shown.

"You wait! He'll come. He's just building up some tension. Keepin' you on edge." Hayner yelled back, but even his face began showing doubt that Roxas was going to show. Worry lines were creasing his forehead; his faith in Roxas was being pushed to the limit every growing minute.

"Don't worry Hayner, he'll show." Olette said as she moved to grab the boy's hand. She was worried though, Roxas always kept his promises. But then again, it wasn't his promise to keep. It was Hayner's.

"Yeah, you're probably right Hayner. He's just building tension is all," Pence agreed.

"Pfft! Yeah right, the dude chickened out. See you losers later. Come on guys, let's get outta here."

"You leaving' already Seifer? Guess Hayner was right, you are a chicken." Cried a voice. This stopped Seifer cold. He slowly turned around to face the stuck up brat he had agreed to fight. He looked like he always did, same clothes, same weird hairstyle, the kid looked as if he was going to the day market, not about to fight someone. And this pissed Seifer off.

"Well look who decided to finally show!" Seifer called back to his pack as he sauntered up to meet Roxas. "So, you finally came. We were getting worried that you got taken away by a chocobo." Laughs erupted from behind him.

"Well, I had to find the right sticks to use." Roxas said matter-o-factly.

"What made you finally show up? Want to get your ass kicked?"

"Naw, I came to kick yours," Roxas said with a blank expression.

Pence and the others were stunned. One, no one with even half a brain would say something like that to Seifer unless he wanted to die. Two, it flat out wasn't like Roxas at all.

Seifer glared at Roxas with his steeliest glares. He looked the kid over, trying to find a tense spot on him to tell that he was actually making an impression on the idiot. That's when he really looked at the kids weapons.

"We said only one weapon." He spat.

"No, you both agreed that sticks would be the weapons. You never said one stick."

"Whatever, you'll need all the help you can get anyway sucker." Seifer pulled out his own stick, it had a sharp point at the tip of it.

If I get hit with that, I'm gonna feel like hell tomorrow, Roxas thought.

"Come on Seifer, show me your best!" And with that, they started. It wasn't so hard actually, so long as Roxas kept feigning.

"Come on Roxas, give him all you got!" Olette would yell sometimes. Pence and Hayner would put in their own say here and there, but otherwise they'd be too caught up in their friend's movements to say anything.

"It looks as if he's done this kind of thing before, don't you think Hayner?" Pence asked his friend at one point. When he looked over he saw that Hayner was engrossed at the sight unfolding before him. Fluid movements and just the right amount of jabs and slashes; the perfect recipe for a natural born fighter.

On the inside however, Roxas didn't feel the least bit like a good fighter, he felt downright beat. His arm felt like it needed more weight to move correctly, like there was something missing that he needed to be able to fight correctly.

"Dammit, this fight is taking too long. See you brat." With one flick of his wrist, Seifer pulled out a dagger about as long as Roxas' forearm. When Roxas noticed it, the adrenaline pumped through his veins like a wild animal being chased in a hunt.

"Roxas!" Olette screamed when she saw the dagger glint in the night light menacingly. She moved closer, just a step so that she could run over to Roxas and Seifer, to try and help. Before she could take another step however, a huge dark bubble encircled her. Darkness. It took only a second for another bubble to pop up around Pence and Hayner. They were trapped in a bubble with no way out to help Roxas.

"Now now kiddies, the fight is between Roxas and Seifer. Not four snot-nosed brats against one guy," chided Fuu. "You know Vivi, it's really helpful to have you around when we have brats like theseto take care of." The silver haired girl smiled menacingly at the trio of bubbles, almost sad that they were not able to see it. "I wonder what we should do with them . . ."

"This was what was going to happen," muttered Olette. The feelings she had had earlier, they were telling her about this. She had practically known about it and she hadn't warned anyone!

"ROXAS!" She screamed in her bubble. She was terrified of this, not knowing how the fight was turning out. It scared her to no reason.


	2. Save two :: Memory ::

Disclaimer – I don't own Roxas, Axel, Sora, Seifer, or any of these characters. But I can wish I did.

Do a little R&R for me please.

"Heh heh, so you scared yet kid?" Seifer had gone over the deep end this time. Sure, the guy wasn't the nicest person out there if you met him in a dark alley, but he wouldn't cheat you, or break the rules so that he won. He just wasn't like that, he would even tell his gang to not break this rule or that one. So what had happened this time?

Roxas dodged the incoming dagger and turned to look at his friends, to give them some kind of sign that he was alright and they should just get out of here. But he didn't see them. All he saw was three huge black bubbles and Seifer's goonies.

"What'd you do to them?" Roxas yelled at Seifer, putting all his might into the attack.

"Oh, that," Seifer said like he was coming out of a daze. "One of Vivi's spells, useful ain't it? Now you have a little motive to fight me." When Seifer grinned, his image seemed to blur and scramble somehow, as if his face and body were pixels.

Roxas risked another glance at where his friends had stood. So those were the stakes. If he wins, he'd get his friends back, hopefully. Lose, and they all lost.

"Dammit," Axel swore as he ran through the crowd of people in the streets, searching for the one place he knew to get help from. Those kids weren't normal, they were Heartless. No pun intended there. Not fully though, the heartless had taken over their bodies and their hearts were just trapped somewhere. Why hadn't he known about that? He shouldn't have let Roxas fight them, not when he couldn't pull out his Keyblades. Dammit, he should have known this. And the one thing he hadn't brought with him, his chakrams, were the only thing he could have used on the kids. But what was up with that fourth one. A mage, no doubt about that, but it looked like he was heartless almost.

"No, heartless don't dress up," he muttered to himself. "Come on; come on, where is that damn street. It's gotta be around here somewhere. Ah! There it is." He murmured to himself as he shoved open the door leading to a pub. He must've look like a complete loon, slamming into a pub and running his eyes over the people in the room, scanning their faces for the one person he was looking for, Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockheart, Aerith Gainsborough, and the others he knew.

"Good," he whispered as he walked over to the table where Cloud Strife sat. "There are heartless in the square."

Deathly silence crept over the pub as they all heard what the red-head had said. But if he'd been expecting a jump up, get going reaction from the fighter sitting in front of him, he didn't get one. Instead, Cloud picked up his drink, put it to his lips and tipped it back so that he could get the last bit of drops out of it. When he sat it back down on the table, he still didn't look at Axel; instead he put a hand in the air so that the waiter could see that he wanted more of whatever he had had. The waiter came over quickly and poured the man's drink, really trying to not look at the man who was glaring at him in the back of the head.

When the man had left from the table, Axel slammed his fists down on the table, making it shake and almost crack.

"Cloud, there are **heartless **in the square. The only thing that's stopping them from wreaking havoc is a kid who actually knows a little bit about fighting!" He snapped.

This got the man's attention. Not a kind of bug-eyed wonder attention, but enough so that he looked at Axel with more concentration. He was skinny, maybe acrobatic, but not someone who looked like they could take on a couple of heartless by himself. Besides, he had no weapon with him.

"And you're telling me . . . . . why?" Cloud asked nonchalantly.

"Because I don't know how long the kid can hold out, that's why." Axel told him sternly.

Now this was a reaction. Cloud was up and out of his chair in a second and telling Axel what to do.

"Come on kid, you'll have to help me out," he turned around to stare at Axel sternly. "Just don't get in my way, understand?"

They were off again, rushing past shoppers and drunks. Axel hoping Roxas was holding out alright, and Cloud almost grinning at the prospect of a fight.

"What the hell are you doing?" yelled Roxas at Seifer.

"Kicking your ass, what does it look like?" The older boy replied. How many times had the boy fallen now? Gahh! He'd lost count; it was just so enjoyable to taunt him like this.

"Hey, kid, why don't you pick on someone your own size?" a voice yelled from somewhere behind Roxas. They both turned to look at who had spoken. They saw a tall blonde standing beside a slightly taller, but younger looking, red-head, with a slight grimace on his face. Roxas winced; a sharp pain had just shot through his mind.

And with no warning at all, the blonde pulled out a sword that was his height. A big ass blade placed on a skinny, wafer-thin hilt. He leapt forward so fast that Roxas hardly had time to react. In a split second the blonde had moved in front of Seifer with both his sticks in a kind of block and closed eyes. As soon as he had done it, he wondered to himself why he had. And how

stupid the move had been and closed his eyes tighter, waiting for the impact that would most likely kill him.

"CLANG!"

The sound of metal hitting metal resounded throughout the air around him.

_Metal?_ Thought Roxas, _I have wood, not metal . . ._

He opened one of his eyes tentatively. When he had opened that one, the other eye immediately shot open.

Swords. That was what he was holding.

"Swords . . ." Roxas murmured in wonder. One of them was a pitch black, streaked with little bits of silver. It was a jagged looking piece of metal that had sharp, dangerous edges all over it. The other one that was in his right hand was a bit softer. Still a bit sharp here and there, like a sword should look, but it looked like it was more open than the other and easier to handle. The strange thing about them though was not their colors, but they way they were shaped. They looked to be keys. The tip of them was the key part, what you put in the keyhole. The end of them was shaped like the handles of keys.

"A Keyblade master." Cloud murmured. He had just attacked a keybearer. Then again, he had been assigned to kill one before. . . . it wasn't that strange.

"Heh, guess she'll be mad that you've got your Keyblades back." Seifer said from behind him. "Ah, well, I can leave a little present for you to remember me by. See ya runt."

The last conscious thought that Roxas had was 'what the heck is a keybearer?' as his body shut down from the sharp pain shooting out from the small of his back.

"Do you think he'll wake up soon?" a voice asked.

"Sure, give him a couple of hours and he'll be running around like a lil' rabbit!" The second voice barked out what apparently was supposed to be a laugh. It ended up being more of a coughing, like a dog's.

He slowly slipped back into unconsciousness as he wondered where he was.

It felt like he had been in silence for a hundred years until he started his slow crawl back to consciousness. He tried to open his eyes to get a look at his surroundings. But even the tiniest slit of light hurt his eyes to no extent.

"Hey! Aerith, the squirts awake!" A sharp voiced yelled from somewhere beside him. It was so much louder compared to the silence he had just been in.

"Hush Cid, he's just waking up so his senses might be a little sensitive. Turn the lights off on your way out. And go get Cloud if you could, please." A musical voice called. It seemed to start walking closer to him, but he couldn't quite tell.

_**FLICK**_

Behind his eyelids it grew dimmer. The lights, apparently, had been shut off. Again, he tried t open his eyes. No burning sensation, but the person hovering over him looked like nobody he knew. Where was he? Then all the memories of the other night came rushing back to him.

"OLETTE! HAYNER! PENCE!" He yelled feverishly, shaking his head and running his eyes over his surroundings so that he could try and find them. The lights were off, but he could see enough from the sun's light that there was no one in the room but him and the girl.

"Who?" the girl asked in her musical voice. He looked over at her. She looked familiar, but he couldn't quite place her with anyone or any name.

"The kids." That annoyingly calm voice was something he knew. It was the guy from last night, but Roxas looked over anyway to the door where the voice had come from, just to make sure. He was right, it was the same guy.

"YOU!" Roxas yelled, surprising himself with how much volume he was able to project. "Where are my friends!" He pushed the covers that the girl was trying, very pathetically, to keep on him. When he got them away, he shoved himself off of the bed. Anger and confusion ran through his body like water in a river, he leapt off the bed and surged forward on the man.

_**CRASH**_

He instantly fell down to the floor, a sharp but slightly dulled pain shot through his back.

"You're still hurt. Don't try and move around to much otherwise all of Aerith's hard work on stitching you back up will be all for none." With that the blonde man left.

It was quiet for a moment. Aerith staring after Cloud with a sad look on her face and Roxas with his eyes dancing with a roaring fire of contempt and absolute loathing glaring at the space the man had just stood.

"Alright, come on, you can't stay on the ground in your condition. I'll help you up back onto the bed." The girl called Aerith said quickly.

"Who was that?" Roxas asked with a stubborn look on his face as he stood up with help from the girl.

"Him? That's Cloud Strife. He's got a bit of a temper sometimes. Oh! And I'm Aerith!"

_Obviously_, Roxas thought, _who else was 'Cloud' talking to? Me?_ Roxas gave her a sideways glance. She seemed nice enough, but. . . .

"Where are my friends?" He asked. He had said it slowly so that the girl could tell that he wouldn't take a change of subject for an answer. Just as soon as the words had left his mouth, her smile faded away. When it had disappeared completely, her face seemed to have fallen and her blue eyes seemed to have dimmed as well.

"What . . . . happened?" he asked again, trying to get some response while trying to not jump to any conclusions.

"They were taken by Heartless. Possessor Heartless." Snapped a voice from the doorway. Roxas looked over to it and saw that Cloud had come back. He was still just as solemn as before, but there was someone else with him, the red-head from the night before. Another sharp jab like the first time he had seen the stranger shot through his head. How long had he been out though?

"What day is it?" he asked the blonde fighter.

"You've been asleep for four days. You almost woke up three times so we had to put you under again." Cloud answered quickly, looking like he might almost smile or grin. He had spoken to Roxas like he couldn't stand being in the same room as him. And Roxas didn't even know what he had done to deserve the silent treatment, almost. As Cloud moved over to converse with Aerith in silent whispers and glances, the red-head came into view again. This time the jab didn't come, there was just a slight twinge on the edge of his brain, like a forgotten dream.

The red-head, who had been cleaning his nails with the utmost interest, felt Roxas staring at him.

"You know," Axel drawled. "It's considered rude to stare." Axel pointed out as he sauntered over to the younger boy's bed. Roxas, who had been unintentionally staring at the lank man's face face, quickly diverted his gaze to the window next to his bed.

There was only a small creak of the bed that told Roxas that the man had sat down.

_He sits like a cat_, Roxas though,_ no noise, and almost made of air._

"Do you remember me?" the man asked, sounding suspicious and nervous at the same time. This caught Roxas' attention.

_What a weird question . . ._ he thought.

"Yeah, you're the guy from last night. You got 'his' help, didn't you?" Roxas said, sounding confused along with irritated when he said 'his', sending an angry glance at Cloud. "If you hadn't gotten in the way last night my friends might not have been taken! It's all your fault that those _**heartless**_ whatever, got them!" He suddenly yelled at Cloud, the stress from all the news of what had gone on finally caught up with reality.

Cloud slowly turned around from Aerith to look at him straight on, his steely, unnerving gaze resting on Roxas' face, making the boy feel nervous and uncomfortable under the wave of frustration that swelled and ebbed in his chest.

"What did you say?" Cloud asked, still staring at the boy as if he never really existed.

"Did I stutter?" Roxas asked sarcastically.

In the blink of an eye, Cloud was just in front of the boy, looking down on him as if he was some stupid Neanderthal. Roxas looked Cloud over, searching for some tension in the man, but the only hint of some emotion was his eyes, which danced with fury, and both of his hands, balled up into fists at his sides. They were shaking.

"You're lucky that you're a key bearer." He finally muttered.

"Or what?" Roxas yelled at the blonde's back. Cloud didn't turn around to answer the question.

"You wouldn't wake up the next time." It was barely audible, but if you had been in that room, it was just quiet enough to hear it.

"What do you know about what happened in your fight?" Cloud barked after he let the intensity of his previous statement sink in for a couple of minutes.

Roxas stared at him, his anger draining out of him just as quickly as it had flooded in. What could he want to know about Seifer? Then Roxas decided that it was time for him to start asking the questions.

"First, I want to know what you meant when you said that my friends had been taken by 'possessor Heartless'? As far as I know, there were no heartless. There was Seifer, Fuu, Rai, and Vivi, but only them."

Cloud looked at the boy, pondering on what he should do with the boy. He almost decided that he should just knock the kid out, but he looked like that could happen at any second.

"I meant . . ." Cloud started.

"Those youngins were takin' over! What don't you get? It's as simple as that! Those four kids were possessed!" A craggy voice snapped.

"Ah geez Cid! Hey kid, glad to see you're up." A female voice greeted. Roxas looked over to the door. There in the stood two more people.

_How many people live here?_ Roxas asked himself.

"Those fools!" She shrieked, frustrated at how the possessors' mission had turned out. It had been a failure. The boy had, in some freak thing, regained enough of his Memory for that time to pull out his Keyblades. If she was to go through with her plans, Roxas could **not** remember.

"At least it had only been a small memory. By the looks of things, he hadn't even gotten a full memory," she remarked as she began twirling a small object in her fingers. She looked down at the fragile piece of Memory she held in her fingers. So small and fragile, it looked like you could break it, shred it, and be finished with it. But of course, nothing was that simple when you're trying to kill a hero. As long as some of their Memory remained intact, they would be able to find it. And one of those bumbling idiots she was stuck working with had dropped all the pieces of Memory they had.

"Now they're scattered and we only have ONE!" She screamed, sending green flames licking up into the air around her.

"But none of the people around him seem to know that they can find it." Someone spoke up from the crowd.

Her eyes shot up into the crowd, when they stopped directly on the speakers face. Vivi.

"Yes Vivi, you're right." She cooed. The little wizard was helpful, as long as she held his friends captive, he was hers to command. But heartless and a lesser wizard were hardly anything against a Keyblade master. Even one who's lost all of his memory.

"You!" She snapped at a Shadow heartless. "Get me the humans, I want to try something." There was no objection to her order, except that of a lonely squeak from among the crowd of heartless.

"So let me get this straight," Roxas mumbled. "My friends; Olette, Pence, and Hayner; were kidnapped by Seifer, Fuu, and them. **But**, they had been possessed by heartless. Possessor's, you said Cloud. And you guys think . . . that they were here to get me? Why?" The people in his room; Cloud, Axel, Tifa, Aerith, and Cid; all nodded an agreement.

"So . . . . why do they want me? And where are my friends? Are they somewhere near? If they are, we've got to go and get them! Not just sit here, and why weren't you guys out there trying to get them?" The questions wanted to boil over him, leaving him drowning in a pool of confusion. Luckily, he had to take a breath, giving Aerith just enough time to come in before he started up again.

"First off, we don't know where they are. So we'd just be walking around looking for something we didn't know how to find, in other words we'd be using our energy for a better use making sure that you were taken care of." Her voice was uncharacteristically stern when she began again. "Second, well . . ." She faded off in midsentence not quite knowing how to continue.

"You're a Keyblade master Roxas. Or you used to be." Axel started off, explaining what Aerith seemed to have some trouble with. "You seem to have forgotten all about what you used to be capable of. **But**, when you stepped in front of Cloud to block your 'friend', you got a piece of your Memory back. Now, it doesn't seem like it was a full Memory, because. . . . well, can you remember anything from before?"

Roxas thought for a moment, but the only thing he could think to say was, "A Keyblade . . . . master?" He murmured in almost reverence.

"Yes, a Keyblade master. Do you remember anything kid, or not?" Cloud asked impatiently.

Roxas began thinking to himself again. Well, did he remember anything? He didn't think so.

"No, I don't remember anything from before a few months ago, sorry." Not in the least bit sorry about it, but it felt like the right thing to say.

"Well, do you remember how when you got in front of the heartless?" Of course he did, how could he forget? "Those blades you had in your hands were your Keyblades. We've only met one other Keyblade master, and he's on another world."

"But what **are** they?" Roxas asked.

"Knights, of a sort. People chosen by King Mickey to serve him. There aren't many, I've heard that there was another Keyblade master alongside the other one, Sora. I think his name was Riku or something like that. When we met Sora he was looking for King Mickey along with the other Keyblade master Riku." Tifa explained. Something about the names, they were kind of like seeing Axel, sent a sharp jab running through his systems. Axel had been watching Roxas to see his reaction to the names, to see if anything clicked. But the only thing he noticed was that the boy would wince, just a fraction of a bit, when someone said the names.

"So, why did you tell me about these people? How can they help me with my friends?" Roxas asked impatiently.

"A good question; you see, we, meaning out little troupe here along with a couple of people not in the room, know nothing about what's happening. Now, we have heard tidbits here and there, but nothing substantial. The only reason we hear anything really is because of a couple of interdimensional travelers. But, those three, Riku, Sora, and the King, might know more about what's happening. There are a few others out there that might be able to help us if we can't get one of the others." She explained further.

"I keep hearing 'we' and by 'we', who do you mean Tifa?" Aerith asked hesitantly.

"Roxas, Axel, and Cloud of course. I mean, you can go too if you want Aerith, I just figured that you'd want to stay here and watch the pub." Tifa told the sighing woman with a slight shrug.

"Leon, too. He wouldn't want to miss this." Aerith replied after a moment or two of mulling it over.

Cloud grimaced, how had he gotten wrapped up in this? He had dutifully stood by. Sure he went out and got the kid, but did that mean that he had to go on another mission? Aw geez, this kid was gonna be bringing trouble where ever he went and Cloud got the task of getting him to the King and the others. That was going to be fun.

Different worlds? Keyblades? Him a master? King Mickey, Sora, and Riku? This was way over his head. Roxas just couldn't stand it anymore. All this confusion and chaos. Friends being snatched up by heartless and heartless taking over people he knew. This was way too much to handle right now.

_I think I'll go back to sleep_, was Roxas' last conscious thought as he left and fell to sleep.

Axel looked over at the sleeping boy. The thought of all of this happening must have been a little overwhelming.

"You!" snapped someone. Axel looked up to see who it was.

_Oh, that girl, the one with the tank top and shorts_, he thought as he stared at Tifa.

"Well . . . what's your story with him? I mean, you seem to know him but he doesn't seem to know you . . _." God, this guy can stare at you almost exactly like Cloud_, Tifa thought to herself as Axel continued to stare at her unmoved by what she had just said.

"I have no clue what you could possibly mean by that. Besides, if anything, the king or one of the other Keyblade masters will be able to help him. He was once a very skilled fighter. Apparently he still is, but his Memory seems to have been wiped clean of all events that happened up until a couple of months ago." Explained Axel, still showing no emotion. But, oh, how he wanted to talk to Roxas like they used to. They could easily tell each other what was wrong, but since his Memory was wiped, Axel would just have to be patient with the progress. That was his reason for trying to find Sora, or that King. And if he couldn't find one of them, he'd search for Kairi or Riku; those two were bound to know where Sora was.


	3. Save three :: Dreaming or not ::

Disclaimer – No, I am not Disney, neither am I Tetsuya Nomura.

Read and Review please. Don't have much else to put here. . .

"So~ra~!" Kairi called. "Where could you be, moron?" She muttered to herself. It had been more than a few hours since he had gone out, and Riku had said he'd seen 'the lazy bum' head over to the beach.

"Of course, he's probably just taking a nap. The guy's way too lazy nowadays, I swear." Riku had told Kairi before heading into the otherside of the island.

"Geez, he can be so cold sometimes!" She had been searching for a good hour now, searching local hideaways Sora might go to sometimes just to get away.

"Sora!" Kairi yelled. "This isn't fun anymore, come out right now!" A sigh fell out of her and she muttered ,"Where can you be, Sora?" The red head skulked around the fringes of the palm trees along the edge of the beach. A spiky brown blot moved, suddenly, among the high grasses in the dunes, a spiky brown blot that was all-to familiar.

"SORA!" Kairi shouted with a laugh of glee. She had found him! She had found him! She had . . . Kairi stopped short as she looked down at the sleeping boy from above. His eyes were closed, his mouth just slightly agape, and his jacket was a makeshift pillow. None of this really registered with her, however, because the one thing that caught her attention the quickest was Sora's keyblade.

"I haven't seen that in a while." Kairi pondered on it for a bit, then finally gave up trying to think of a logical reason for its reappearance.

"All right Sora, wakey wakey." She stooped down to level her mouth just above the sleeping boys ear. One . . . two . . . three!

"SORA!" The brunette immediatly bolted up, tense from his rude awakening. He ran his eyes over the scene and couldn't place anything to the loud, almost hiccupping noise erupting from somewhere around him, then he looked down and saw her.

"Kairi~, what'd you do that for?" He groaned while settling down on the sand in front of his childhood companion. He'd just had a very strange dream, he couldn't quite remember all of it, but . . . _No, Axel isn't still alive. . . Is he?_ Sora asked himself. The last time he had seen the fiery red-head alive had been in the tunnel to The World That Never Was, after that he'd supposed Axel had just faded away. Disappeared to who knows where. But, the Nobody couldn't have come back, could he? He'd asked King Mickey if it was at all possible, but the King knew of no way to resurrect them.

_No, it's not possible and that's that . . . I think_. Sora sighed, not really knowing what to think now.

"Because," Sora blinked back into the present and focused back on Kairi. "I've been looking for you for about an hour now."

"Huh? Why?" Looking for him? But instead of answering Sora question, Kairi blushed and quickly changed the subject.

"So, why do you have your keyblade out?" Kairi asked as she tried to hide her ever reddening cheeks by looking down. The young man looked confused at her statement. His keyblade? When he looked down at his hands, sure enough there it was.

"What?" He whispered, running through different scenarios that would cause this reaction. However, there was only one thing he kept coming back to, the King had summoned him. As soon as the thought crossed his mind, a strange tingling sensation ran up and down his sword arm. The summon.

"Kairi, I want you to go tell Riku something." Sora started as he hopped off the ground, nearly against his will.

"Sora," she started warily, getting up as well. "What's going on? What are you doing?" Kairi asked, head-to-toes shaking.

"Kairi, listen, I need you to tell Riku that I left and that the King is summoning again." But she didn't leave like he'd wanted her to, instead she latched onto him, clasping her arms around his chest. The shaking was faster now and there wasn't much time, Kairi was shaking just as much as he was now. "Kairi, please-"

"No," she snapped. "I'm not going to sit around and worry about for you this time. And what about Riku, maybe he's leaving, too. I'm not going to stay here by myself." Besides, if the King is worried so much that he has to summon Sora, what's out there now?

Sora looked down at the red-brunette in disbelief. She had to tell Riku what was happening, otherwise he might start travelling again, just like Sora had done for him, looking for where he had run off to.

"Kairi-," but the shaking was too bad and they couldn't get another word out before Sora's keyblade opened a portal to Disney Castle.

Where was he?

Roxas looked around him and nothing looked familiar; it wasn't the room he had been stuck in at the place with the read-deah, and there was some girl clinging onto him like she was afraid he'd slip away.

"Kairi," he murmurer involuntarily. "Kairi, you can open your eyes now, we're here." The girl looked up at him with big blue eyes luminous with tears.

"Sora?" She asked, fear being an almost tangible substance around her.

"Huh? My name's not Sora. I'm Roxas." He told her, finally being able to speak on his own, but as soon as he'd said it the dream and castle walls dissappeared, melting away with the girl, until he was alone in the darkness. The dark was cold, bone-chilling, and the blonde attempted to walk around, except he couldn't feel his feet or muscles, so now he wasn't sure he was really there at all.

"Who's there?" A voice called from the darkness. Roxas looked up, or atleast he tried to, but he still couldn't see anything except emptiness and the pitch black darkness.

"I asked you a question! Who~ are~ you~?" The rocky voice called again, echoing around the place where Roxas was. Suddenly a stench interrupted Roxas' rambling mind. _That's really strong for being a dream_, he thought to himself. The smell was pungent and sharp like rotting meat, but another scent was there that seemed more like a corpse.

"I think you're just imagining things, you old bat." There was another broken voice other than the third.

"I tell you, I am not. There really is someone out there." The first crowed to the newcomer.

"Now, why would someone be down here? They'd first have to get past Cerberus, not to mention the fit that Hades would have if someone dared to enter his realm undead." A third voice had entered the conversation and it sounded just as old and hoarse as the first two.

"You're right sister," the second voice agreed. "The only people who have done that were Orpheus and Hercules. Even Zeus has a problem with entering unharmed." A crackling jumple of laughter eruted from the never-ending darkness.

"Give me the eye, I want to make sure there is no one here." A grunt followed this and a quick suckling sound like an octopus sucker after that. _No, no,they can't find me, they can't find me. It's just a dream, _Roxas repeated again and again to himself in his head."Well look here. . .," a smile probably played on the lips of that thing right then. "There's nothing." It spat out with disgust. A sigh escaped Roxas as he let his tense body settle. _NO! Crap, I hadn't meant to do that_, he thought as he clasped his hands over his mouth.

"Did you hear that?" One of the old voices called out. Suddenly there was loud banging and shouting as they tried to find him. Then a cold, bumpy, boney hand grabbed onto his arm.

"AHH!" Roxas yelped as the claws started to scratch and pull at him.

"I've got him!" Cried one of them. "I've got him! I've got-."His consciousness began to ebb away as waves on a beach. "NO! HE'S GETTING AWAY!" was the last thing he heard the creatures yell before he safely fell away from the cave.

Cold sweat clung to his cheeks and ran down his back when he woke up, making his neck feel too hot and sticky. _A nightmare, that was all it was, a frickin' nightmare_, he thought to himself as the blonde struggled to get his breathing under control, _but it had seemed so real._ He sat up, letting the cool air of the loft reach his back when he remembered the clawing his arm had gotten. Quickly shaking off some of the bandages on him, Roxas examined his shoulder. Nothing. A sigh of relief escaped him at the true realization that it had been nothing but a nightmare.

"You all right?" A clipped voice asked. The blonde's head shot up to see who had come into his room. The red-head.

"Yeah," he replied wearily. "It was just a nightmare."

"Oh, really? Then you have to tell me about it." When the younger boy looked up at him with a wary look, the red-head continued by saying, "I've heard that telling someone about your nightmares can help you understand them better."

Oh. "Could you tell me who you are first?" Roxas asked indignatly. The red-head smiled as if he had expected that quesiton.

"Sure thing, the name's Axel and you're Roxas, got it memorized? Now, about your nightmare?" Axel grinned at the dubious look Roxas still threw at him. Either way, Axel sat down on the edge of his friends' cot.

"Well," Roxas started tentatively. "it was dark, so I couldn't tell where I was, but I could hear someone talking , they sounded like old women, but when they grabbed me they seemed to have claws." He paused, thinking about why he hadn't told the red head about Kairi. Enough, you didn't want to, so what? "Well, it sounded like there were three of them, but they all sounded really similiar. Oh yeah, and they talked about an eye, and as soon as one of them had it they seemed to be able to see me. And there was a dispute between two of the hags about whether or not someone could get past Cerberus and how only one person had been able to do that, Hercules. . ." Roxas stopped talking. Axel had spaced out for some reason. Now, instead of staring intently at him, the guy was staring into space. Had it really been that boring? Was he just overreacting to, well, nothing? "Axel?" Roxas called quietly. It felt weird to say the name, like an electric shock running through his system. The green emeralds came back into focus and stared intently into the crystal blues planted in the blonde's head, seeming to be a bit stunned, but as soon as the 'deer-in-the-headlights' look appeared, it disappeared and was masked by look of uninterest.

"Yes?" The nonchalant voice had come back.

Roxas thought for a moment, he really wanted to ask Axel if they'd ever met before, if they'd known each other before this. That's just stupid, Roxas thought. So, instead, he just shook his head and told him that it was nothing.

"Ok," Axel muttered, a bit disappointed, but he had known it would take a while and he'd have to regain all of Roxas' memories before they could really talk again. His thoughts flew back to what Roxas had said about his dream and it worried him. He knew exactly who the 'creatures' had been from the nightmare, The Fates, but why would Roxas go to them? ANd there seemed to be something that the boy was holding back.

"Is there anything else about your nightmare?" He asked cautiously, hoping that he wouldn't step on the younger boy's toes for asking. Instead of saying anything Roxas just stared at him for a moment with a thoughtful look in his eyes that made him want to just bundle him up and hide him away from everything. Too bad the look didn't linger long. A flash of pain and suddenly Roxas was back to being what he had always been. Aloof.

"No, nothing else, just the cave." Roxas paused, searching for the right words until he came up with some that were completely inadequate. "Thank you, for listening to my nightmare, and, I think, for bringing Cloud to the fight."

Well this was something different, it shocked the red-head into stunned silence unitl he looked at Roxas thoughtfully and with a warm smile. "You are welcome Roxas, thank you for letting me hear your worries." And as quickly as possible, Axel was out the door before Roxas had even lain his head back down again.

"Kairi," Sora murmured. The last thing he remembered of her was her crying after they had arrived at the King's Castle and then all the rest was a big huge blur. He stil hadn't opened his eyes, letting his consciousness have time to catch up to him, when a low chuckle erupted from his left.

"No, not Kairi, but she is here. I don't get it, why'd you bring her along though?" The voice was all to familiar to mistake for anyone else.

"RIku?" He asked meekly. Trying to open his eyes so as to get a look around himself was harder than he'd expected.

"Heh, yeah, the King summoned me as well, wouldn't you know it? Guess he though you wouldn't be able to handle whatever he's got to dish out at you alone." Another harsh sounding, but light-hearted chuckle erupted. Sora finally got through to his eyes that he wanted them to open except it took a couple of times to get them to stay open. He got there eventually.

As he looked around himself, at first he didn't recognize the room. it was very plain compared to the other rooms in the castle that he'd seen. A couple of windows with pale blue curtains and royal red carpets. the sky oustide was a pure, equal shade of blue with couple of white puffs sporadically splashed into it.

"Where am I?" Sora asked groggily, trying to prop himself up on his elbows.

"Geez Sora, didn't I just tell you? The King's Castle." Riku sighed exasperatedly.

Sora glared as much as a newly woken person could. Which isn't a lot.

"I know that, I meant, what room."

"Oh, well, you're in-,"

"You're in the infimary. You wouldn't know it, but that's what it is." Someone replied. Sora tried to get a better look at whoever had spoken. Twisting and turning this way and that on the bed he got a look at her. Kairi. From what he could see, she hd changed from the outfit he had last seen her in. The new, cleaner, outfit had no sleeves (Kairi's preference) with a zip-up jacket along with a new skirt.

"Glad to see you're up Sora." A playful grin danced on her face and it infected Riku and Sora, as they both began to grin like idiots, Sora more so than Riku.

"Well, it looks like you're up too, Kairi." Riku, Sora noticed, also had a new outfit on, though his had subtler changes. His pants were dark blue with lighter shades, as always, but his shirts looked a lot different. He had a zip up vest outlined in dark blue but the sections between the blue was a honey shade like the t-shirt underneath. The t-shirt was tight and formfitting as an atheletic shirt usually is and still breathable.

"Ouch." Sora muttered silently as he tried to fully sit up, only to be stopped by a sudden shock to his hand.

"Be careful," Riku and Kairi scolded in unison. They stared at each other for a split second before all of them burst into laughing fits. As the laughter dimmed down to a small chuckle, Sora started thinking about what Kairi had said about where he was. The Infirmary? He hadn't even known that the Castle had an Infirmary. He took another look around himself, but no matter where he looked, nothing stood out to him that this was an infirmary.

"Aah! Good, he's awake," came yet another familiar voice from the doorway. The mage hadn't been fast enough though, because Sora had caught sight of his feathered friend disappear down what was most likely a hallway. "King, King! Sora's up, Sora's up!" Donald Duck called as he disappeared down into the pits of the Castle. The feathered mage was so happy to see his friends here. The last time they'd seen each othere hadn't been the greatest time for catching up with old friends. Donald shivered, the memory of that time wasn't on his 'most favored' list. However, something was bugging him, what Kairi had told him when he had found her and Sora in the foyer wasn't good news, even if he yet knew what it meant.

For an hour now Roxas had been up in his cot, trying to decide on what to do next. Get up and face them, or try to disappear out the window? Which was the best choice? After an hour of debating, he decided on trying to find out all he could about those things that had taken his friends. With a swift dismissal of his sheets, Roxas was up and out of bed and trying to find some clothes he could wear. Rummaging through the drawers and looking on the chairs and the table he turned up empty handed, but he still had the closet to look through.

The doors were the same color as the floor, pale oak. He opened them slowly so that he didn't make a lot of noise. Before opening them all the way he stuck his head through their opening so he wouldn't have to make any more noise; but there were no clothes. An exasperated sigh fell out of him. _Where were all the clothes? _All he was wearing now were some shorts and a ton of bandages slapdashedly put on.

"BOO!"

Roxas jumped as a pair of wet, cold hands covered his neck. Quickly grabbing the hands, he pulled them off and twisted around so that he could see who it was.

"Who are you?" He asked cautiously. It was a girl about his height with short, black hair. She had a green bandana and a green tank top with a pair of minishorts on. Her face was sort of small with huge eyes and a gigantic grin.

"Hee hee! Sorry, name's Yuffie. Nice to meet'cha Roxas." The girl smiled widely at him.

"N-nice to meet you." He stammered. Why had he stammered?

"Looking for some clothes?"

"Yeah, do you know where some are?

"Taa daa!" Yuffie pulled a bag of clothes from somewhere behind her. "You live in the apartments, right?" Roxas gave a quick nod. "Well, once you get dressed, come down and we can try and find you something to eat."

Roxas looked dubiously at the big-eyed girl and took the bag from her. Looking inside Roxas was surprised to find nearly all of his clothes, which isn't much, as well as a pair of shoes.

"Hey, thanks-" Roxas started, but when he looked up Yuffie's gone and he's left alone again. "That's been happening a lot lately." After rummaging around inside the package of clothes, he finally found something that seemed to work together. He got up at walked over to the mirror and took a look at himself. The shirt was a puzzle full of blacks, blues, off whites, and zippers, whereas his pants were easier to look at with only pockets on the side as well as a black and white check pattern at the bottom of black pants. "Atleast I'm presentable."

Carefully, Roxas shut the door so that no one would be woken up from the noise. He knew taht Yuffie was up, so that was one less person to worry about, but from the number of people he saw last night there were still a ton of people left in the place. As he wandered down the hall, he noticed that there were a number of doors and hallways leading into different sections. Different doors had different colors and knobs and it all seemed rather eclectic, but in a strange way he felt at home.

"Guess I kinda fit in here, it all seems not to fit together."

Drifting through the silent hallway seemed strange. No noise, no sound, absolute nothing except the wind carrying the early morning mumbles of shopkeepers opening their stores. It had been six days now since his friends had disapp- no, since they'd been kidnapped. They were taken right from underneath my nose, he realized. He felt sick as soon as the thought crossed his mind, his throat becoming scratchy and hot, scorching his breath. the thought that monsters had taken the only people he 'knew' here and had run off to some other world was crazy in everyway possible.

Yet he'd seen it happen, hadn't he? Wasn't the whole thing true? Hadn't everything the people from last night said sounded. . . right? Roxas crumpled to the ground and leaned against the wall beneath one of the odd shaped windows. Tears, hot and burning, began to fall and he had no power to stop them from coming. No strength ot get up and move, as the idea of trying to save Pence, Olette, and Hayner swallowed him whole. He was supposed to be the best fighter out of all of them! The protector! Not the guy that, when it really counted, failed to come up to the plate. They'd never asked for much, they didn't tell him what to do and when to do it, so why couldn't he help them then?

"Dammit." Roxas swore into the hands that now held his face, cradling it as he shook. "DAMMIT!" The second time he screamed it from his core, not caring if anyone heard him or not anymore. Roxas shot his hands to the ground and pounded . For a while he just sat there and time passed, but only pain and grief registered in his mind. There was no motherlly Olette to com and hold him, to tell him everything would be all right. There was no Hayner to come and awkwardly offer some advice and slug him one in his shoulder. There wasn't even Pence, the only guy you'd find that would offer you food for your comforts.

"I'm alone." Roxas told himself resolutely. The realization solidified his resolve to finding his friends and getting over himself. Besides, this wasn't the first time he'd been on his own.

Before he really knew what was going on Roxas was up on his feet and walking towards the stairs. There was something in his eye that was blinding him. What was it? He rubbed his eyes a couple of times, but it wouldn't go away. When he raised his hand again to try and rub what was blinding him away Roxas couldn't see his hand anymore. When he blinked his eyes again and opened them nothing showed up. He was blind before the idea caught up to him. He tried to stand motionless, hoping he wouldn't fall, but as soon as his eyesight left him so did all of his senses. He could have been upside down and he wouldn't know it, but what was that blot?

At first glance it was only a yellow, black, and silver blot, small and indistinct, but as Roxas tried moving towards it the vision moved into focus and he realized it was a kid. No, it was him. His other self was curle tightly into a ball and his hands were clasped infront of his legs. The younger Roxas was looking into the darkness with some resolute gaze, as if he had done something he hadn't wanted to, but knew that he'd had to.

"Why do you look as if you are going to start crying, boy?" A voice called out. The other Roxas shot up into a defensive stance with his fists held out in front, prepared to go down fighting. The voice was cold and harsh, unyielding in power, but it seemed to have tried to sound . . . kind?

"Who's there?" The young boy cried out. Now that he was standing up Roxas saw that he did in fact look like him, only younger. The other Roxas looked to be only 15 or 16, not 18 like he was now. The younger one spun around, warily ooking from side to side, searching for whoever was talking from the shadows. "SHOW YOURSELF!" He yelled. Only a low chuckle erupted from the mysterious person and echoed throughout the darkness.

"I don't hink so boy. I just have an offer for you."

_That voice. . . it sounds familiar. . . _thought Roxas. _Who is it? _The dream, or whatever it was, itched his mind as he attempted to place a face to the voice. The other Roxas had releaased a little tension, but kept his hands at the ready by his side. "What offer?"

"You are in. . . limbo, you could say, an here you will stay since you have combined wit your Other. Sad really, never being able to see your friends again, never being able to eat with anyone again. Instead Sora gets to stay on the outside world and live life to its fullest. Do you think it fair? Should you be the one to be alone? It is his fault that you're in this situation. Why not leave? You know what you wanted to find out, how much solitude can you handle? " The thin railing voice stopped its bone rattle and the younger Roxas looked broken, torn, and destitute. The voice chuckled and continued his speech. "You poor thing," it said. "So many memories taken and replaced, you probably don't know which ones are yours and which ones aren't anymore."

_What? _But before Roxas heard anymore of the conversation the world went a blindingly pure white and he saw nothing of his younger self. Questions rushed through his mind about what he'd just seen. What or who was that voice? When had he been there? Was it a fluke dream, or . . . was it a memory? And why was Sora always coming up in all of his conversations, what was the connection? They bubbled and hissed as in a teapot's steam trying to find a way out of their enclosure as the boy came to on the wooden floor of the hallway.

Sweat, again, held fast to his back while it also held his cheek to the wood below him. For a little longer Roxas simply lay there, unwilling to move until the world stopped spinning. It took a littl while, but he finally stood up and began to slowly ease hiimself down the hall, through the stairwell, and into the room with a lot of clamoring and noise.

"Hope it's the kitchen." He muttered softly as he pushed his way through the swinging door.

R&R is appreciated. Have a good day.


	4. Save four :: Clockwork ::

Disclaimer – Kingdom Hearts and all their places, characters, objects, etc. belong to Disney and Square Enix

Here's the latest chapter and I'm working on the next. R&R is appreciated, thanks.

A quiet pattering sounded from outside the door.

"Guess that'll be the King." Sora looked at Riku and Kairi, the former sitting on a backward chair and the latter on the edge of his bed. It'd been a couple of hours, but Mickey was a king after all, so they should have expected that. They all grinned at each other as the door opened, but when they looked over, expecting the King to be there, they were surprised to find that Queen Minnie was smiling at the trio.

"Your Highness!" They called in unison.

"What happened to the King?" Riku asked first.

"Oh, I told him to come a couple of minutes after me; I wanted to talk with all of you first. Besides, I wanted Sora to get a new outfit like I'd given you two."

"Huh?" Sora looked behind him at his two friends that were now grinning like the Cheshire Cat. "Wait, I don't need a new outfit, what's wrong with this one-" He was scrambling for something to say, but the Queen cut in.

"No buts Sora, you're going to love whatever the brooms come up with. Kairi and Riku did." The Queen motioned behind her for someone or something to come in.

"Wait, broom? What d'ya mean BROOMS!" Sora was panicking now while the other two were laughing like hyenas behind him.

"Don't worry Sora, it'll be all right. They won't hurt you, I promise." Kairi chuckled.

"Unless he doesn't like what they give him, you mean. Who would have thought that the big bad Keybearer would be afraid of some brooms?" Riku grinned at Sora's now desperate look.

"Now, kindly follow the brooms Sora. Please." The Queen showed him into the dressing room where the brooms were already setting up some kind of contraption. Before he had a chance to say no, however Minnie pushed his back and sent Sora scrambling inside the room.

"Now, I have to talk to the two of you." Minnie turned back around to the giggling couple. "It's about Sora and Roxas." The way she had separated the names sobered the two up at the mention of Sora's Nobody.

"What about him." Riku spat out, though they had been put back together, Roxas was a bit of a bad memory. Kairi on the other hand looked thoughtful and worried, she'd not come into much contact with the Nobody, but her own Nobody had been the equivalent for Roxas of what she was to Sora.

"When the King heard about what had happened in the Castle foyer with you, Kairi, and Sora, he muttered something and I'm not sure if he knows that I heard what he said. He muttered 'Roxas' and that was all before he disappeared inside of his library. I myself think that the possibility of Roxas showing up outside of Sora after being so long dormant is slim, but . . . well, Kairi, have you had any black outs? Has Namine made any contact with you? Anything?"

"No." The girl told the Queen. "I haven't heard anything from Namine and, at least I thought, that after they came back to us, they became us again."

"That's right; there isn't a way for a Nobody to come back after they've gone back." Riku looked away from the other two and glared out one of the windows.

"Not completely true Riku."

"Your Majesty!" Riku and Kairi looked up to see Mickey Mouse standing in the doorway of the infirmary with a tattered old book in his hands.

"What do you mean, 'not completely true' Mickey?" Fear and anger fought for control of Riku's emotions.

"Well, I was looking through some of my books after Donald told me about what had happened to Sora. As I had thought, there have not been any such occurrences as Sora's. I believed the same as you, Riku, that once Nobodies go back to their Others things would return to normal, but do you remember what Namine told you? That Roxas was . . . different? Remember? She told you that Sora's Nobody was trying uncommonly hard to become his own person, almost unheard of with Nobodies because they remember what it was like to be human and they usually try to continue with that mentality, never escaping what they'd done in their previous life and becoming, in almost all likeness, the same person they were before."

"What do you mean Mi-?"

"I mean, that Roxas may have found a way to return. Perhaps he really did have a heart, or at least part of one, and that 'heart', we'll call it, reacted strongly to seemingly losing his identity."

"So . . . Roxas is out there. Now?" asked Kairi, trying to piece everything together.

"That's the idea, but we'd have to contact Master Yen Sid for more information, I've given you all that I can give."

"Well, then I guess we're heading to The Tower." Everyone turned around to look at Sora; Kairi even cracked a smile at the two brooms that stood on either side of him with their arms raised in a 'taa-daa' fashion. His new outfit, a jacket, shorts, and an undershirt, was a bit like his last one in that aspect, but his undershirt was a dark blue with silver lining and his jacket was a dark blue with various zippers, red pockets, and yellow lining. His pants on the other hand had lines running down and across them and huge pockets that were silver as well; yellows and reds were placed in various places as well.

"How long were you-?"

"Now hold on Mickey, I have to tell Sora about his new clothes. Their power is in almost every way the same as your previous clothes, except that, well I'll let you find out on your own. Oh, I see you have your bandages on still. Let me see your hand." Sora looked up at Riku and Kairi with a questioning look, but all Kairi did was shrug and Riku didn't even look at him. "Ah, I thought so. Look here Sora, Mickey you may want to see this as well." Sora looked down at his hand in the Queen's and was shocked for at what he saw.

"What is that?" Mickey muttered. Riku and Kairi approached the huddle as well and the girl gasped aloud at what she saw while Riku looked enraged.

"Sora, dear," Sora looked up at the Queen. "You've been Marked." The way she said it sounded so final, so definite, but when the brunette looked down at his right hand and saw the little burn mark shaped like a key, he just couldn't see it as anything harmful, but who knew what it really meant.

As soon as Roxas stepped through the door and into the kitchen, noises and sounds of everyday life assaulted his ears and nearly knocked him back down.

"Hey! Who are you?" A strong hand grabbed hold of his shoulder and, with amazing speed, Roxas grabbed the hand and spun around to face a young man. He was brunette and looked to be no more than one or two years younger than Cloud with shaggy, nearly shoulder length hair. His leather jacket with a messy fur collar and jeans tucked into some military style boots gave him the air of an old, grisly warrior. The strap across his chest that ran over his shoulder and held onto some type of sword helped with the idea as well.

"Squall, I see you've met Roxas!" Yuffie had her big grin on and was bouncing up and down on her heels as she looked between Roxas and Squall.

"It's _Leon_, Yuffie. And this is supposed to be the keyblade master?" Leon/Squall replied sharply, giving Roxas a look over and seeming unimpressed with what he saw, a short chuckle escaped him.

"I am the keyblade master, got a problem with that?" Heat shot to Roxas' cheeks as he had a stare down with Leon. Was it that unbelievable that he would be one of the Keyblades chosen ones? After a few moments, Leon closed his eyes and gave another short laugh and turned to look Yuffie full on.

"Doesn't he remind you of someone?" It took Yuffie a minute, but then she started laughing aloud.

"You're right! I didn't realize it until you acted like that. Wow, didn't you say the same thing to him, too?"

"Who are you guys talking about?" Leon turned back to look down at Roxas, a small smile on his lips. It didn't stay long before it was replaced by his no expression.

"Just a friend that's also a Keybearer. Sora." Roxas stopped breathing. There he was again. Sora. So he was . . . is a Keybearer, too. Dumbstruck at this new development, Roxas slowly moved over to a vacant table and sat down in it, staring at his hands without really looking at them. Why was this happening to him? Why was he the guy that kept getting new things dumped on him? First heartless and keyblades, then new _worlds_, and what about all these people? Especially that one guy-

"Hey Rox!"

"Speak of the devil," Roxas muttered.

"What did ya say?" Axel asked, taking the seat across from the blonde boy.

"Nothin'," Roxas replied, looking up at the grinning-cat mask the red head was wearing. He was wearing a black coat, zipped up in the front with a hood hanging from the back and silver drawstrings in front. From the look of the jacket, you would think that with all the heat he'd have been sweating rivers instead of looking as cool as a cucumber. Wait, that coat looked familiar . . . wasn't that . . . no, never mind.

"How do you handle it?" He finally asked, trying to be at least a little friendly.

"Handle what?"

"The heat. I mean, if I was wearing that jacket I'd be dead in an hour with this weather." Axel started laughing as soon as he'd said jacket. "What? What's so funny?"

"Oh, uh, heh, nothing. Um, it doesn't seem too hot to me. I mean, it's only 70 degrees."

"Only 70?"

"Yeah, only 70." Axel replied calmly, a reckless grin playing with his lips. The heat wasn't a bother to him at all, in fact he hardly ever was hot, but if it got really cold, well, that was another story. The two of them sat in comfortable silence for a little while after that, neither willing to break the sense of friendship they had between them. It all ended, however, when Tifa Lockhart showed up.

"SO!" She started. "What's for breakfast you two?" The tall young woman was smiling down at the unlikely pair as if she knew a joke they hadn't heard.

"Um-" Roxas was scrambling for words while Axel quickly shifted gears.

"I'll have sunny-side up, toast, and some coffee. Roxas?" The young blonde didn't reply, too dumbstruck to do anything but look like a fish out of water. Axel smiled and asked Tifa for two of what he ordered. "That way you can get something in your stomach. We've got a long day ahead of us, so you might as well be ready for it."

"Wait, what? What are you talking about?" _When had this happened?_ wondered Roxas.

"We're going to visit the wizard Yen Sid. He knows everything there is to know about nearly everything." Roxas looked disbelievingly at the idea of visiting some wizard, but he didn't have time to say anything about it as Tifa came out carrying two plates with a mug of brown stuff on each.

"Thanks." They told her before eating their meals. While they ate Axel told his young companion about Yen Sid, such as the fact he'd taught King Mickey everything he knew and about some of Yen Sid's findings.

"Hey, isn't the King the one who decides who is a Keybearer?"

"Oh- uh, yeah, he's the one. Anyway, about these-"

"I want to meet him."

Crap. Roxas sat in his seat with his toast and eggs barely touched and a stubborn look on his face, whereas Axel's plate looked like someone had eaten eggs then thrown them back up and a worried look gnawed at his playful attitude.

"Have you thought this through?" Delay him Axel, you have to make sure he doesn't remember anything too quickly, especially that part of his life.

"No, only a little bit, but he might be able to answer my questions. Plus, he might be the guy who points me in the direction that those 'heartless' carried my friends off." Roxas had stopped living in the moment as he went misty eyed and looked out of the nearby window at all the shop goers as the gravity of his situation caught up with him again.

"Then you'll meet him."

"Huh?"

"I said you'll meet him. It's not that hard Roxas; we are going to his castle, aren't we?" _Take a sip of coffee Ax, you've got to shut your gob before you make more promises that you aren't sure you can keep. _When he looked back up Axel noticed that Roxas was gazing into his own coffee mug.

"You know, that's hardly coffee anymore." _Keep it simple, don't do anything rash._

"Hmm?" _Ah, so he was daydreaming._

"I said that your coffee is hardly coffee anymore. You added a ton of sugar and milk."

"Oh." There he goes again, daydream world. The two of them sat together at their little table in companionable silence as they both roamed around in their own dream worlds, until Axel couldn't stand the silence anymore and broke it.

"All right, see you later." Slowly Axel got up and began to move away from the cafe table.

"Wait!" Roxas called after the retreating figure. "Um, I have some more questions . . . would you mind talking with me?"

No, not at all. Come on, let's talk like we used to! "Maybe later, I've got some things I've got to do."

"Oh." Roxas watched the fleeing red head disappear into the doorway from whence he came. Feeling as a discarded toy might have, Roxas finished his breakfast and left some munny for Tifa. Best time to go out, nobody was watching. The pub had gotten more and more crowded as the conversation had carried on. Most of the people sitting down were cramming as many people as they could fit into a single booth. The door was only a few tables away and if he didn't look like he was doing something he wasn't supposed to, he might just reach the door and make it out. Worth a try, right?

Getting up out of his chair was simple; no one cared what an eighteen year old did as long as it didn't concern them.

"Come-on," he muttered. "Just a little further." No one he'd seen in his room nor those that he'd been introduced to saw him and he wondered how long it'd take for them to even notice he was gone with all of the people there.

Gently Roxas pushed the door open and then he was gone. Disappearing into the early shopping crowds that were beginning to fill the streets. The sun blinded him temporarily as Roxas took his first step outside in . . . how long? Six days? A heavy sigh escaped Roxas at the harsh reminder of how much time had passed and how long the heartless had to get a head start. Pence, Hayner, and Olette could be in major trouble and he couldn't do anything about it! Those thoughts piled on top of him, crushing and squeezing his heart as he walked back to the apartments by memory. The recurring headache struck again, but no vision, of any sort, followed suit and he continued picking away at the distance between the apartment and himself.

Finally, he arrived at his destination after passing through the markets. For a moment, Roxas wondered if he could enter the apartments as his muscles had frozen and tensed as if something physical was about to hurt him. He warred with himself about what had happened and a part of him was scared of what he would find in their rooms.

Slowly, Roxas walked up to the door, walked through the entrance, and got onto the lift. He started going up, up, and up to the top floor. Ding! The lift had arrived. The doors opened and he saw the apartment. And nothing had changed.

"Strange." He had expected the normalcy of the rooms to have changed drastically after their occupants' violent abduction, but nothing had been disturbed. The doors that branched off from the main living area were all closed shut and the kitchen was a bit messy, but everything seemed normal. He half expected the three kids he'd been staying with to come in laughing at some joke they'd heard, but after a couple of minutes just examining things Roxas was still alone.

He continued to roam through the apartment's quarters as a ghost and when he'd entered his room he had started at how clean it was and thought Olette had come through on one of her cleaning crusades. _Except Yuffie had come here_, the young man thought to himself gloomily. Finally satisfied that things were . . . normal, Roxas sat down at the table with a glass of water. Nearly an hour and a half had passed by and no one had come looking for him from the pub.

"Wonder if they even know I'm gone by now."

"Yeah, they're pretty sure you're MIA." Roxas leapt out of his seat and dashed to the other side of the table as soon as the voice had finished speaking. Axel stood in the door way of the apartment, looking both playful and irritated at the same time.

"Oh, hey Axel." Roxas said, surprised at his reaction time and looking confused that Axel was the one to come looking for him, even if he was the one who seemed to show the most interest in Roxas' state of mind. The tall, lanky man moved forward with a cat's grace and stopped once he'd reached the side of the table Roxas had just ran from.

"What's with the reaction shrimp, do I scare you that much?" He let out a low chuckle.

"N-no, I was just surprised that someone had come to get me."_ I just hadn't expected you of all people to come_.

"Oh really. . . Hmph. Well, you are the main reason we're all going to Yen Sid's place, so pack your bag if you really need something. Check out your room if you want to find something I suggest." Swiftly the young blonde ran into his room, grabbed what he needed, and ran back out to meet Axel at the lift's entrance. "Ready?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, here we go." The pair rode the lift down and exited the apartments quickly, both hoping that this wizard, Yen Sid, would be able to answer their questions.

"Where are the others. And, how are we supposed to get to Yen Sid's? Does he live nearby? Because I've never heard of -,"

"Don't worry." Axel cut in. "They're meeting us at the train station since there's only one time thtat the train passes through Twilight Town." Axel paused for a moment and then resumed the conversation. "I'm not surprised you've never heard of him, he likes his privacy. So, mind leading the way?" After the red head had finished speaking they quickly wove in and out of passer-bys and made their way towards the large clock tower that silently watched over the comings and goings of people. The streets were still filled with people milling around, but the crowd had thinned as the lunch hour came. Mothers called to their children in high pitch voices, the strain of a day at the beach already weighing on them. A few times Roxas and Axel had to dodge on-coming families and couples that wanted a head start for the best spots on the beach.

The silence between them, despite the hollering that was erupting all around, was as permeable as a granite boulder. Roxas took careful, hidden glances at the taller man, but when he looked over at him the bright, sea green jewels always seemed to find his own sky blues. A slight cat grin appeared on the red-head's face and he narrowed his eyes mischievously so that his already high, black tear drops rose even further up his cheeks.

"What'cha lookin' at squirt?" Axel teased, knocking his fist lightly against Roxas' shoulder.

"Nothing." Roxas looked back ahead of him as they picked their way up the hill that rose up the center of town. Shops passed by and soon they were looking up at the town's train station. The clock tower rose high above them and as Roxas watched the minute hand tick away their time a sense of déjà vu struck him in the head.

An aching pain rushed thru his heart as an image of a girl with black hair appeared at his fee. She was looking up at him with such care and loss that tears erupted, clouding his vision of the black haired girl. She had appeared to be speaking to him, or so he thought, and her clothes looked very much like Axel's, but. . . All he heard was his own voice calling out 'Xion!' over and over again as his chest shattered. The image took forever to fade away, but when it had finally left him all he saw was darkness.

"Roxas! Roxas! Look at me Rox!" Axel called out to the slight blonde. The boy had just fallen over and started to scream his lungs out for Xion. 'Why now?' Axel muttered to himself. He tried shaking the eighteen year old's shoulders, but it only seemed to make his vision worse as he began to call out the name louder and louder. "Roxas! Come on, wake up!" The few people that were at the train station started to whisper among themselves about the spiky red-head and the unconscious blond. They shot furtive glances in their direction, their mouths hidden behind hands. They weren't even going to try to help them out, this was all just some sick entertainment to them.

"Come on Roxas. Wake up, will you?" Axel would give him till the count of ten before running for help.

One . . .

The entrance of the train station burst open as Leon and Cloud heard the commotion.

Two . . .

"Axel!" Cloud called out as he quickly descended the stairs. "What happened?"

Three . . .

"I don't know! He keeps calling for Xion, but-,"

Four . . .

"But what?" Leon asked, kneeling on the other side of Roxas, struggling to keep the boys flailing limbs from doing any harm to anyone.

Five . . .

"Who's Xion?"

Six . . .

"Have you slapped him yet?"

"No!"

"Water?"

"Does it look like I carry around a frikkin' glass of water?"

Seven . . .

"Move." Cloud pushed Axel away from the screaming boy.

Eight . . .

"What're you gonna do?" Axel wondered out loud. Cloud removed his broadsword from its strap.

Nine . . .

"If he is a Keybearer, he'll protect himself. I mean, if he's really a keybearer." With that Cloud swung downwards with his sword as if ready to hack Roxas' head clean off of his body.

TEN!

"NO!" Roxas' eyes shot wide open into the terrifying sight of Cloud's broadsword swinging down at him. With a swift jerk of his hands, his black and white keyblades were up and guarding him. The block, however, sent his arms shaking and it was all he could do to roll out of the way and on top of Leon's boot, should Cloud decide to go crazy again.

"The HELL do you think you're doing?" Axel screaming in Cloud's face. The stoic blond looked completely unfazed at the act he'd just committed. "You could've KILLED him, y'know!"

"But I didn't." Cloud turned back around and made his way back towards the train station. Leon got up and followed after him.

"Damn Cloud. Always being such a pain in the ass." Axel muttered a few more strings of complaints as he followed the two stoics, leaving Roxas to bring up the rear. He barely even glanced over at the many yammering groups of people squealing about what they'd just seen.


End file.
